The title of this three movement work by composer Geoffrey Gordon refers to the town of Ferrara, Italy, a home and haven to the arts during the reign of Duke Borso dEste, for whom Francesco del Cossa (c.1435-c.1476), painted a series of frescoes for his Palazzo Schifanoia, circa 1469-1470. Specifically, inspiration for this work is drawn from the panel for April (del Cosso created an astonishing cycle of twelve calendrical frescoes, the Cycle of the Months, only partially preserved today), featuring the mythical Three Graces--whose names comprise the movement titles--amid an array of lovers in varying stages of entangled indulgence. For his part, the Duke cultivated instrumental music to a degree hardly surpassed elsewhere in early Renaissance Italy, and this, too, is reflected in the April fresco, where the atmosphere of sweet connubial bliss is enhanced by symbols of harmony and aural concord: lutes and recorders in the hands of misty-eyed maidens. (The message here is intentional